There’s a little 7 year-old girl who goes to daycare at Patsy’s house a couple of days a week after school. Her name is Faith, and Cate adores her. The feeling is absolutely mutual; I’ve noticed since Cate was born that babies are like crack for little girls from the age of 5 to about 12 or so. Faith is no exception, she wants to carry Cate around and play with her all the time. It actually took a long time before Cate allowed that. Faith was a little too up-in-her-grill at first, and Patsy had to teach Faith some boundaries, but they worked through it and now they are best buddies. It’s gotten to the point that on the days when Faith is at daycare? Cate basically ignores me when I arrive to pick her up because she’s having too much fun playing with Faith.

So, it wasn’t really surprising that yesterday afternoon, Cate happened to be looking out Patsy’s front window, saw Faith get off the bus, and announced, “Here comes Faith!”

I kid you not. I wish I’d been there to hear it, but Patsy swears that’s exactly what she said. Other stuff that’s come up recently:

* I know I mentioned this before, but she knows that the kitty-cat says meow. Granted, every animal we name also says meow, but who cares? Animal sounds!

* As for the actual animals, she knows kitty, doggy, horsey, birdie, and bunny. I haven’t gotten her to say “cow” yet, everytime we visit the cows across the street, she calls them horseys. (Eh, they’re both really large mammals who hang out in fields all day, right? Close enough.)

* She loves Johnny & The Sprites, perhaps even more than she loves My Friends Tigger & Pooh. (I like it because I kind of dig the music; it’s surprisingly good for a kids’ show, I think because the whole show is done by people who do a lot of Broadway work.) If she gets cranky, and I say, “Hey Catie, wanna go watch Johnny?” She’ll start screaming, “Shonny! Shonny!” She stomps her feet and dances around in a circle during the opening credits, it’s hilarious. I’m going to have to get a video of that at some point.

* She knows the sign for “more” and she says it at the same time that she signs it. Especially when we’re eating strawberries. (Yum.)

* This morning she was in her high chair eating some Cheerios, and she pointed at the refrigerator and said, “Mehk!” Then she did this weird combo sign that she’s been doing for the past few days – basically, it’s the sign for milk, but she does it up against her mouth (because she wants to put the milk in her mouth, of course) so it looks like she’s drumming her fingers on her lips. Took me forever to figure out what the heck she meant by that.

* She says “hi” and “bye” to everyone, but because she repeats back what we say to her, most of the time she says “hi, baby” and “bye, baby.” So it’s pretty funny when we’re leaving in the morning and she says “bye, baby,” to her daddy. Sort of like she’s a cool 60’s hipster, very Austin Powers-ish. Yeah, baby!

I’ve heard about the “language explosion” that happens during the second year, and it seems like we’re right at the very beginning of that. And seriously? It is blowing my mind. My child can TALK. She understands what we say, and she responds. It is the weirdest, coolest thing in the world, and I love it.